“Volare represents a significant step forward for companies building their branded in-store mobile experience,” said Andrea Calcagno, Cloud4Wi CEO and co-founder. “Our extensive work with global brands has inspired substantial new customer engagement capabilities, and we’ve made it easier for IT and marketing to manage their business and operational requirements. Brands can now deliver guest Wi-Fi globally through our cloud platform, increasing both customer satisfaction and revenue in ways that were never before possible.”

Volare enables brands to offer their in-store customers a privileged mobile welcome experience and fast-tracks their connection to the Internet. The platform also helps brands build an opt-in lead database, learn more about in-store customer behavior, and meaningfully engage consumers on-site via their mobile devices.

Guest Wi-Fi Taken to a New Level

Volare, which means “to fly” in Italian, is the new name for the company’s service platform and introduces a host of new capabilities that further extend the company’s leadership position within this market. Some of these features include:

New Mobile App Integration – Brands with their own mobile apps can now easily integrate local wireless capabilities to facilitate app adoption and effectiveness. The Volare Dev Suite has new libraries so that mobile apps can use Volare login services or trigger a mobile engagement campaign using beacons.

Expanded Developer Suite – Volare connects directly to marketing service platforms, like MailChimp. This builds on existing APIs that enable customers to integrate the platform with their marketing automation, CRM, and business intelligence systems, giving marketers a powerful toolset from which to create actionable insights.

Redesigned Management Interface – Volare makes it easy for IT, marketing, and channel partners to manage their own business and operational requirements. This multi-role and multi-level management ability empowers IT managers to delegate control with assigned policies and permissions. Brand owners can create a consistent look for their welcome portal across all locations, while allowing store managers to promote local offers. At the same time, IT can control guest Wi-Fi services and marketing can manage engagement tools.

Volare has an over-the-top architecture, allowing brands to standardize each customer’s mobile experience across all locations, regardless of the underlying Wi-Fi. Initially developed to meet carrier demands, Volare offers public and private cloud options and delivers the industry’s best scalability, reliability, and flexibility, along with comprehensive regulatory compliance on a global basis.

“We wanted each of our stores to have a common digital welcome experience worldwide,” said Claudio Montechiarini, Technology and Operation Director, Ermenegildo Zegna. “Cloud4Wi enables us to customize our welcome portals, while also giving us a powerful platform for analytics and business intelligence integration that will service our needs for years to come.”

While many brands initially deploy Volare as a custom welcome portal, the platform includes a large portfolio of customer engagement options. The marketing team can add various services from Volare on an a la carte basis, learn which programs are effective for their customers, and measure customer satisfaction and business revenue increases.

Services platforms for guest Wi-Fi are expected to be a $25B market by 2020, according to Adlane Fellah, CEO of market research firm Maravedis. Cloud4Wi recently received $8 million in private funding with the investment aimed at growing the company to more quickly address this opportunity.

Cloud4Wi will be demonstrating Volare in booth #42 at this week’s Retail Week Live conference, taking place today and tomorrow at the O2 arena in London.

If you’re interested in a demonstration, please contact Brodie Kirkeby at bkirkeby(at)cloud4wi(dot)com

Cloud4Wi offers Volare, the industry’s leading services platform for advanced guest Wi-Fi. With Volare, large retail chains, restaurant chains, and shopping malls build their brands by leveraging their existing Wi-Fi networks to provide superior on-site mobile experiences, while gaining valuable customer insights. Volare’s open, cloud-based platform is distributed through channel partners and connects more than 45 million mobile users across 15,000 locations in more than 80 countries. Customers include Armani, Burger King, Bulgari, Clarks Shoes, Olive Garden, Prada, and Telecom Italia. The company is based in San Francisco, and has offices in London, Paris, Milan, Pisa and Singapore.